In Case of Rapture, Can I Have Your Car?

With all the talk about tomorrow being Judgment Day, I'm reminded of my favorite juxtaposition of bumper stickers I saw awhile back. The first one I saw said, "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned." The second one, however, was the better one: "In case of rapture, can I have your car?"

I've spoken and written extensively on how bad eschatology leads to all kinds of distortions of Christian faith. Speculating continuously about "end time" events ranks right up there, mostly because it turns the focus away from what Jesus said was really the most important thing: the kingdom God that transforms the whole creation and us. 

I'm trying to have a day off and watch a ball game (I mean, what would you do if you knew the world was ending in 24 hours?), so I'll defer to one of my academic and theological mentors to do the heavy exegetical lifting. As for the so-called "rapture," N.T. Wright discusses how a misreading of Paul has led to all sorts of bad theology and a misdirected Christian worldview. Check out his essay here

It's also interesting that in this same ostensibly apocalyptic week, Stephen Hawking came out with the statement that heaven is a "fairy tale." This got a lot of Christians foaming at the mouth as well but, again, it's an exercise in missing the point. Historically and biblically, Christians have believed in resurrection from the dead and not a permanently disembodied existence in a faraway heaven (though many still subscribe to the latter). The creation still matters, even at the end. Wright writes rightly about that as well. You can check out that essay here. (Note: I reference Wright twice here because he is the one New Testament scholar who seems to address these issues when they pop up and does so biblically, theologically and rationally!). 

I thought about not preparing a sermon this week since, well, you know… But Jesus keeps prompting me to prepare it anyway. Yes, I do believe Jesus will return one day, but it won't be according to our timetable, and it probably won't look anything like we expect. It didn't the first time, either. 

On the day before the "end," I'm still pretty confident that God will be doing what he has been doing from the beginning–making all things new. Better that we keep working with him until he says otherwise!

For more, check out my colleague and ministry teammate Joe Iovino's blog. Joe always has a way of looking at things from an interesting angle. 

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